Many businesses, and other organizations, use software applications or suites of such applications to organize their affairs, track performance, and the like. Such applications, referred to herein as “enterprise applications” are often quite complex, relying on numerous database tables to store and manage data for virtually every aspect of an enterpirse. Merely by way of example, enterprise applications can include supply chain management (“SCM”) applications that manage raw materials, work-in-process and/or finished products, coordinate with suppliers, and the like; customer relations management (“CRM”) applications that are used to track, store and/or manage customer information; financial management (“FM”) applications that track and/or analyze the financial performance of the organization; and human capital management (“HCM”) applications that provide management of the human resources functions of the organization. In some cases these enterprise applications are standalone applications; in other cases a suite of applications provides some or all such functionality. One type of enterprise application is referred to as enterprise resource planning (“ERP”) software. Examples of enterprise applications include, without limitation, JD Edwards Enterpriseone™, PeopleSoft Enterprise™ applications, and the Oracle eBusiness Suite™ all available from Oracle Corporation.
In many ERP applications access to the many options available is provided by a hierarchical menu structure displayed to the user. Typically the top levels of the hierarchy are more general and the lower levels are more specific. One level of the hierarchy is displayed at a time and the user selects an item of interest to view a lower level in the hierarchy showing more features available for the item of interest.
In the following a hierarchy is an arrangement of objects in which the objects are represented as above, below, at the same level, and having any other type of relationship between objects. Attributes can be assigned and inherited by objects of a menu structure in accordance with a hierarchy of the created menu structure.